Joseph Glanyil was an English philosopher who also wrote several
works on occultism. He was born at Plymouth, and became a Church of England
clergyman with charges at Frome Selwood and Streat and Walton. In 1666 he
was appointed to the Abbey Church, Bath, was made a prebendary of Worcester
Cathedral, and was chaplain in ordinary to Charles II. from 1672. In his
scepsis Scientifica (1665), his Sorcerers and Sorcery (1666),
and his Sadducimus Triumphatus (printed 1681) he endeavored to defend
the supernatural, and offered many illustrations in support of it. A.G.H.